Dean's Message

Dear Friends of Gonzaga Engineering,

Welcome to the School of Engineering and Applied Science! Our School continues to increase its visibility and reputation as a result of: (i) exceptional faculty and staff, (ii) enthusiastic and talented students, and (iii) alumni and friends who genuinely care about our School!

Looking Back / Looking Forward

Looking back, our School has taken advantage of several opportunities to pursue excellence and opportunity. Our freshman numbers have continuously increased over the past decade as our reputation (both the University and our School) growths both regionally and nationally. As an example, our Center for Engineering Design and Entrepreneurship (CEDE) supported 40 senior design projects on topics ranging from suspension systems on a Baja car, to humanitarian engineering in Africa. Efforts supported through a grant from a private foundation continue to motivate our undergraduates through the Goller Hall living-learning community and innovative opportunities such as our 24-hour Innovention Challenge. Our Transmission and Distribution Engineering (T&D) on-line graduate offering is producing ever greater numbers of Master Degree recipients.

The quality of our students also continues to impress! A recent graduate (now at Purdue in their graduate program) won a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Another recent graduate was supported in her last two years of study by a Department of Defense SMART fellowship. More locally, two of our seniors recently placed 3rd in a Start-Up Weekend Competition (Spokane, Washington) for new businesses through their proposal to teach entrepreneurial skills to engineering students. Finally, a group of our students (freshman through senior) worked feverishly to finish our new Baja Car and enter it into the recent Society of Automotive Engineers competition in El Paso, Texas!

Looking forward, our School is pursuing strategic planning wherein we are seeking ways to make our programs yet more visible, innovative, and exciting. Through a generous gift, we are introducing laptop-based learning environments this fall. Our Mechanical Engineering program is completing upgrades on their design labs. Our student project space also continues to increase in its capabilities (including a series of 3D printers). We are also in the initial planning stages of a major expansion to our facilities.

These efforts are all supported by our exemplary faculty and staff – this extraordinary group of scholars and support personnel works tirelessly to offer new opportunities and challenges to our students.

Finally, let me once again return to the quality and energy of our extraordinary students. They are the foundation and motivation for all that we do. We eagerly look forward to continuing to work with these young adults throughout their evolution into the leaders of the next generation of engineers and computer scientists!

Thank you for the privilege and honor of allowing me to share our School with you.